PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Locally sourced drugs can be effective for treating multidrug-resistant TB

Locally sourced drugs can be as effective as 'internationally quality assured' drugs for treating multidrug-resistant TB

2015-04-29
(Press-News.org) Locally-sourced antibiotics can be as effective as 'internationally quality-assured' (IQA) antibiotics for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Pakistan, and may help avoid delays in starting treatment while programmes wait for drugs to arrive from overseas, according to new research published in PLOS ONE.

The study is the first to compare outcomes of MDR-TB patients treated using IQA drugs with those treated using locally procured drugs in the same hospitals over the same period. It was a collaboration between researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Pakistan National TB Control Programme, and the Research Alliance for Advocacy and Development.

MDR-TB affects approximately 500,000 people globally per year [1] and is resistant to at least the two most effective drugs usually used to treat TB. The main challenges in treating and preventing MDR-TB are costs of second-line antibiotics and concerns about drug quality. To enable TB control programmes to purchase internationally quality assured drugs for MDR-TB at a subsidised price, the World Health Organization established the Global Drug Facility in 2001. By 2013, 117,485 MDR-TB patient treatments had been purchased. However, the procurement and distribution through this international process takes longer and may increase overall costs compared to locally available drugs.

In the new study, researchers analysed clinical progress of 231 MDR-TB patients (90 treated with IQA drugs and 141 treated with locally procured drugs) at six months into treatment in three large MDR-TB hospitals across Pakistan. They found no overall difference between the two treatment groups. Previous studies have indicated that progress at six months is a good predictor of final treatment outcome.[2]

Dr Mishal Khan, study author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Our findings suggest that potential treatment delays and additional costs associated with sourcing IQA antibiotics for MDR-TB, in preference to locally-sourced antibiotics, may not be justified in settings where good quality drugs can be procured locally.

"While there are legitimate concerns about poor regulation and drug quality in several low-resource countries, we hope this study contributes to the debate about advantages and disadvantages of local or regional drug procurement and quality testing. This may be a more sustainable strategy that encourages growth of the local pharmaceutical industry and exerts pressure on manufacturers in low-resource settings to abide by quality standards".

Study lead author, Dr Ejaz Qadeer, head of the Pakistan National TB Control Programme, said: "These results provide good evidence for TB policy-makers in Pakistan and other resource-constraint settings.

"The availability of second-line drugs is a major barrier in the provision of quality treatment to all MDR-TB cases. We believe a stringent drug control authority and ensuring quality standards at country level could be a feasible solution in low income settings like Pakistan. The study provides evidence to guide the National Health Authorities and global partners to consider further research in different settings, which may lead to appropriate policy changes for procurement of second line drugs."

The authors note that this was a non-randomised study and that confounding factors may have been different across cohorts. They also note that the locally-procured drugs in the study went through a quality assurance process by the hospitals, and therefore may not be representative of all antibiotics available on the market in Pakistan or in other countries.

INFORMATION:

The study was funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

For further information, or to request a copy of the paper or an interview please contact the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine press office: press@lshtm.ac.uk or +44(0)207 927 2802.

Notes to editors:

* Qadeer E, Fatima R, Fielding K, Qazi F, Moore D, Khan M. Good quality locally procured drugs can be as effective as internationally quality assured drugs in treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126099

Once the embargo lifts the paper will be available at the following link: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126099

[1] Figure taken from WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2014 (p.12): http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/gtbr14_supplement_web_v3.pdf

[2] Progress measured specifically by cultured sputum testing negative for the presence of bacteria

About the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health, with 3,900 students and more than 1,000 staff working in over 100 countries. The School is one of the highest-rated research institutions in the UK, and among the world's leading schools in public and global health. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Pharmaceutical industry regulation undermines NICE drugs appraisal work

2015-04-29
Government policies that support UK pharmaceutical science and enhance export income are costing the NHS millions and undermine the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. In an essay published today by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, health economists Professor Alan Maynard and Professor Karen Bloor describe an inflationary regulatory system that lacks accountability, is not evidence-based and subverts the efficiency of the technology appraisal work carried out by NICE, a target of pharmaceutical industry hostility since it was established in 1999. Professors ...

Three secrets to healthier eating

Three secrets to healthier eating
2015-04-29
If you want to know the secrets of healthier eating, think of the kitchen fruit bowl. A fruit bowl makes fruit more convenient, attractive, and normal to eat than if the same fruit were in the bottom of the refrigerator. A new Cornell study analyzed 112 studies that collected information about healthy eating behaviors and found that most healthy eaters did so because a restaurant, grocery store, school cafeteria, or spouse made foods like fruits and vegetables visible and easy to reach (convenient), enticingly displayed (attractive), and appear like an obvious choice ...

Parents describe arduous journey from diagnosis to pediatric epileptic surgery

2015-04-29
Having a child diagnosed with epilepsy can be a frightening and confusing time. Now, parents share their arduous and "circuitous" journey to get referrals for pediatric epilepsy surgery once their child's disease stops responding to anti-seizure medications. The UCLA study sheds light on the difficulties parents face obtaining specialty and sub-specialty care for their children during an already stressful time. The study points to the need to develop interventions that target and remediate these barriers to comprehensive epilepsy care for children, said study first ...

Prevent type 2 diabetes blood-sugar spikes by eating more protein for breakfast

2015-04-29
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes have difficulty regulating their glucose -- or blood sugar -- levels, particularly after meals. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that Type 2 diabetics can eat more protein at breakfast to help reduce glucose spikes at both breakfast and lunch. "People often assume that their glucose response at one meal will be identical to their responses at other meals, but that really isn't the case," said Jill Kanaley, professor and associate chair in the MU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. "For instance, ...

Uncovering new functions of a gene implicated in cancer growth opens new therapeutic possibilities

2015-04-29
Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have shown for the first time that a gene previously implicated in blood vessel formation during embryonic development and tumor growth also induces immune suppression during tumor development. This finding, published April 29 in Nature Communications, opens the door for new therapeutic approaches and vaccine development in treating patients with melanoma and other advanced-staged cancers. Two decades ago, researchers discovered that a gene called Inhibitor of Differentiation 1 (Id1), which is normally found in the embryo, was ...

Combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy shows promise for advanced prostate cancers

2015-04-29
Chemotherapy can be very effective against small prostate tumors. Larger prostate tumors, however, accumulate cells that suppress the body's immune response, allowing the cancer to grow despite treatment. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine now find that blocking or removing these immune-suppressing cells allows a special type of chemotherapy -- and the immune cells it activates -- to destroy prostate tumors. This novel combination therapy, termed chemoimmunotherapy, achieved near complete remission in mouse models of advanced prostate ...

Researchers find 200-year lag between climate events in Greenland, Antarctica

Researchers find 200-year lag between climate events in Greenland, Antarctica
2015-04-29
CORVALLIS, Ore. - A new study using evidence from a highly detailed ice core from West Antarctica shows a consistent link between abrupt temperature changes on Greenland and Antarctica during the last ice age, giving scientists a clearer picture of the link between climate in the northern and southern hemispheres. Greenland climate during the last ice age was very unstable, the researchers say, characterized by a number of large, abrupt changes in mean annual temperature that each occurred within several decades. These so-called "Dansgaard-Oeschger events" took place ...

In online movie marketing, less is more

2015-04-29
Video didn't killed the radio star, as the eponymous 1978 pop song predicted, and now, researchers have found, cross-channel discounts for online movie sales don't cannibalize online rentals of the same movie. Analyzing data from a major movie studio that distributes its catalog of titles online, Jing Gong, a doctoral candidate in information systems and management at Carnegie Mellon University, and her co-authors measured the impact of price discounts on own- and cross-channel sales of digital movies. They confirmed their expectation that digital movie consumers are ...

Five-year survivors of esophageal cancer still face low but constant risks

2015-04-29
Seattle, WA, April 29, 2015 - Patients with esophageal cancer who survive 5 years after undergoing surgery might breathe a sigh of relief and become complacent about continued monitoring. In fact, there is little published information on the outcome of patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer (LAEC) who survive beyond the 5-year mark. A study that will be presented by Brendon Stiles, MD, Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, at the 95th AATS Annual Meeting finds that these survivors still face ...

Danish discovery may change cancer treatment

2015-04-29
Danish researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Herlev Hospital have made a discovery that may change the principles for treating certain types of cancer. The discovery relates to the so-called telomeres that constitute the ends of human chromosomes. Short telomeres are related to unhealthy lifestyles, old age and the male gender - all of which are risk factors in terms of high mortality. Up until now, the assumption has been that short telomeres are related to ill health. The challenge for researchers worldwide has therefore been to find out whether or not the ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] Locally sourced drugs can be effective for treating multidrug-resistant TB
Locally sourced drugs can be as effective as 'internationally quality assured' drugs for treating multidrug-resistant TB